Treasury Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo. He has directed the transfer of 515 procurement officers.
Senior procurement officers in government have been moved in the latest shakeup to deal with rampant corruption in public service.
This follows a trend that saw the previous administration subject officials to lie detector tests as part of a crackdown on the vice.
Although the National Treasury explained the changes are designed to address “the existing gaps and to rationalise the human resource supply,” authorities have in the past resorted to the action to discourage corruption in big money public tenders and break up cartels that have infiltrated government offices.
Some 515 officers across the government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) including the Office of the President are affected by the transfers announced by National Treasury Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo in a December 6, 2024, circular to all PSs and accounting officers in government.
Dr Kiptoo, while directing the officers to report to their new stations by December 20, noted that the shakeup is in line with the Public Service Commission (PSC) circular of May 9, 2022, to all Cabinet Secretaries, which provides for the transfer or rotation of officers performing support services.
New station
“All the PSs and accounting officers of the affected Ministries, Departments and Agencies are requested to facilitate the release of the officers to report to their new station with immediate effect and not later than December 20, 2024, after proper handover in line with PSC guidelines,” said Dr Kiptoo.
The circular is copied to National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi and Mr Felix Koskei, the Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service.
In the reshuffle, three officers designated Supply Chain Management Assistant III have been deployed from the Executive Office of the President to the State Departments for Internal Security, Mining and Cooperatives, respectively.
Others affected by the redeployment are in the rank of senior deputy director supply chain management, deputy director supply chain management, assistant director supply chain management and principal supply chain management officer.
Also affected are principal supply chain management assistant, senior supply chain management officer, senior supply chain management assistant, supply chain management officer and supply chain management assistant.
In the shakeup of January 28, 2023, at least 50 procurement officers in the ranks of deputy director and supply chain management were affected.
Just like heads of finance, accounting units and internal auditors in government, procurement officers are hired and deployed by the National Treasury- the exchequer- and report to the National Treasury PS.
Conflict of interest
The conflict of interest where public officials bypass formal requirements to secure benefits for themselves or related parties, collusion that has seen businesses collude to fix prices or maintain cartels and bribery and extortion to capture contracts have been blamed for corruption in government.
The movement of procurement officers in government is now implemented as a way of curbing runaway corruption over public tenders. During their tenures, Presidents Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta also shuffled the procurement officers as part of measures to break up cartels in government procurement.
Their actions were triggered by the fact that public procurement is susceptible to corruption potentially because of the large sums of money involved and the large volume of contracts.
For instance, in June 2018, President Kenyatta announced the suspension of all heads of procurement and accounting units in MDAs pending a fresh vetting that included being subjected to lie detector tests as he ramped up efforts to deal with graft in government.
“All the heads of procurement and accounts in MDAs will undergo fresh vetting including polygraph testing to determine their integrity and suitability,” President Kenyatta announced at the time. “Those who fail the vetting will stand suspended,” he added.
President Kenyatta ordered the lie detector tests for top procurement officials on the back of the Sh8 billion National Youth Service scandal. Public funds were stolen through multiple payments as well as fake invoices for goods that were never delivered and services that were never rendered.
Following the President’s proclamation on the fresh vetting of public officers during his Madaraka Day address on June 1, 2018, the first category of public officers to undergo fresh vetting were the Heads of Procurement and Accounting Units in Ministries, Departments, Agencies including State Corporations.
The officers were required to submit to the Head of Public Service personal information in sealed envelopes that included their assets, list of known companies and businesses owned or controlled by the officer or immediate family members that did business with government, stocks, shares and partnerships including investment groups of which the officer and spouse are members, certified copies of bank statements of the officer and spouse for the last six months including any foreign accounts.
The exercise was to be concluded at the start of the 2028/19 financial year but the Employment and Labour Relations Court suspended the sanctions following a suit by activist Mr Okiya Omtatah, now the Busia Senator.
Mr Omtatah had argued that vetting of the procurement and accounting unit officers could be undertaken while the officers were in office.
Justice Byram Ongaya in July 2018 ruled that the vetting of heads of accounting and procurement units in public office was not unconstitutional but placing them on compulsory leave was unconstitutional.
“The declaration that the circular of June 4 2018 is illegal and unconstitutional only to the extent that by designing and prescribing imposition of a compulsory leave with full pay the circular thereby contravened the Constitution and only to that extent, the circular is rendered null and void,” the judge ruled.
